Duffy, Austin: Cross

1994, the summer of the ceasefire. In the Northern Irish border town of Cross, after decades of violent protest against British rule, a community plays out its end game. Francie, a principled elder of the cause, has authorised the murder of a policeman; his teenage henchmen are triumphant at pulling it off. In the town square, the Widow Donnelly protests because her son has gone missing. Young Cathy Murphy, the daughter of a Protestant, is trying to find her place among a people who ignore her, and pathological Handy Byrne, whose marksmanship makes him a valuable weapon, is out of control. Meanwhile, paranoia is growing because operations are beginning to go wrong. The townsfolk suspect a tout, but no one is willing to accept the evidence before their eyes. Cross is an extraordinary act of ventriloquism, intimately capturing the language, humour, loyalties and divisions within a lawless town, where violence is rewarded and complicity is second nature. It is an intricate tale of betrayal and brutality at the height of the Troubles, a moving, powerful and empathetic lament for a community that has lost its way in its battle for the nation.